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13 May 2026 04:00-04:00

Real Madrid would be MAD to reappoint Jose Mourinho! Potential Bernabeu return is damning indictment of Florentino Perez's desperation

Real Madrid are in trouble. And when Real Madrid are in trouble, Florentino Perez always asks those around him, "Is there anything to be said for bringing back Jose Mourinho?" Why? Because hiring Mourinho worked once before. Kind of. Back in 2010, Madrid had been put in an unbearable position by Barcelona. They weren't just being beaten by their most hated rivals, they were being embarrassed by them. So, Perez turned to Mourinho, the self-anointed 'Special One' who had just upset Pep Guardiola's pass-masters - in every sense - on his way to winning a European Cup with Inter.

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His first Clasico ended in abject humiliation, but Mourinho subsequently managed to get under Guardiola's skin by somehow increasing the toxicity surrounding one of the most politically-charged and passionately-felt fixtures in world football - and to such an extent that it actually caused divisions within the Spain squad.

The atmosphere of animosity suited Mourinho's cynical style of play down to the ground, and he ended Madrid's painful three-year trophy drought by defeating arguably the finest team in football history in the 2011 Copa del Rey final, before ending the Catalans' three-year reign as La Liga champions the following year.

By the summer of 2013, though, Mourinho was gone - and nobody was especially sad to see him go. Except for Perez. During an increasingly turbulent tenure, Mourinho had fallen out with pretty much everyone connected to the club - from players to the press - but Perez thought about reappointing the Portuguese as coach in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2023 and now he's actually poised to do it.

So, is the time really right for Mourinho to return to Real? Or is this a disaster waiting to happen?

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Decade of decline
Perez clearly feels that there are parallels between now and 2010 - and there are a couple, in fairness. Madrid are once again set to end a second consecutive season without a major trophy - utterly unacceptable at the Bernabeu - and have been eclipsed by a brilliant Barcelona team led by a little, left-footed forward.
However, Mourinho is no longer the man with the Midas touch. He continues to court controversy, but now without collecting trophies. He hasn't won a league title for 11 years, and his last piece of silverware of any variety was the 2022 Conference League - which is rather indicative of the two-time Champions League winner's current level.

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How to manage Madrid
Perez will doubtless argue that Mourinho is precisely the kind of coach that Madrid need, a charismatic character capable of commanding the respect of a squad full of superstars and, for all the doubts about his archaic footballing philosophy, Kylian Mbappe & Co. could clearly do with a strong leader on the sidelines. As Sergio Ramos once said, "At Real, managing the dressing room is more important than the coach’s tactical knowledge."
However, Mourinho is nothing like Madrid's past two Champions League-winning coaches: Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane. He's far more aggressive and confrontational - and his incessant intensity ultimately brought a premature end to his first spell at the Bernabeu.
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Messy divorce
Mourinho often likes to claim - unprompted - that he's one of the few coaches in Madrid's history to have left on his own terms, and it's a story that's always been supported by Perez.
"Nobody's been sacked, it's a mutual agreement," Perez insisted back in 2013. "We've decided to bring our relationship to an end." But it was hardly an amicable break-up. Less than a year after signing a contract extension until 2016, Mourinho's position had become untenable.
In January 2013, Perez took the unprecedented step of calling a press conference to deny a MARCA report that a number of senior players, including club legends Iker Casillas and Ramos, had threatened to quit the club unless Mourinho was dismissed. However, it was clear long before his departure was finally confirmed four months later that the coach had lost the dressing room.

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Losing the dressing room
Basically, the methods with which Mourinho had enjoyed such success at Porto, Chelsea and Inter proved his undoing at Madrid. His beloved 'siege mentality' only worked for so long. The very same climate of constant distrust and disrespect that Mourinho had created around the club eventually - and arguably inevitably - permeated the squad, resulting in the players turning on the coach.
Casillas kept quiet about being relegated to the bench during the 2012-13 season, but Pepe went public with his dissatisfaction with the way in which the goalkeeper was treated by his compatriot. Mourinho's response was to insinuate that Pepe was simply bitter about the fact that his own place in the team had been taken by a teenage Raphael Varane.
Ramos, meanwhile, reportedly mocked Mourinho's football skills behind the scenes before making a very pointed comment about Ancelotti when the former Italy midfielder took over in June 2013: "You can tell he was a top player."
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Pouring petrol on a dumpster fire
It was also Ramos who challenged the idea pushed by both Mourinho and Perez that the Portuguese laid the foundations for Madrid's subsequent success in the Champions League. According to Mourinho, Perez even begged him to stay at Madrid in 2013. "Don't leave now," the Blancos president allegedly said. "You've done the hard part and the good part is yet to come."
Ramos, though, refused to give Mourinho any credit for Madrid's four Champions League triumphs between 2014 and 2018. "I don't think he had anything to do with it," the defender said. "On the contrary, in fact..."
The insinuation that Mourinho may actually have been holding Madrid back was probably overegging it - but it's clear that the squad benefited enormously from the arrival of a calming and unifying force like Ancelotti.
It's also difficult to see how Mourinho's return would restore anything resembling stability, after a season of upheaval in which Xabi Alonso was ruthlessly replaced by rookie coach Alvaro Arbeloa just over six months into what was meant to be a long-term project under the former Bayer Leverkusen boss - before all hell broke loose in the dressing room last week.
Adding Mourinho into the mix would hardly lower the tension at the club. On the contrary, it would be akin to pouring petrol on a dumpster fire - which is why Casillas has already admitted he is dead against Perez's most ill-fated of ideas.
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Time to move on
Furthermore, while Mbappe may have liked an Instagram post touting Mourinho as Madrid's next manager, one imagines that Vincius Jr is less enamoured with the idea of being coached by a man that effectively accused him of inciting the shameful abuse he was subjected to in Lisbon earlier this season that actually forced a suspension of play in Madrid's Champions League play-off clash with Mourinho's Benfica.
Of course, supporters of 'The Special One' are already arguing that he's the "ideal" disciplinarian to restore order at Real, but these days he does little else but create chaos by constantly complaining about referees - although, in fairness, fellow conspiracy theorist Perez may well see that as a plus rather than a negative.
So, while it's been reported that the Portuguese's potential return does not have the backing of the entire Madrid board, that doesn't mean it won't happen. Perez, as he made clear in an extraordinary press conference on Tuesday, still calls the shots at the Bernabeu - and his long-standing belief that the players require a team leader rather than tactician will have only been emboldened by Jose Angel Sanchez's failed Alonso experiment.
However, the mere fact that Mourinho is still top of his wish-list is a damning indictment of Perez's desperation - and disturbing lack of ideas. As so thrillingly illustrated by Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich’s Champions League semi-final first-leg clash at Parc des Princes, the game has moved on from Mourinho.
Evidently, Perez has not, meaning Madrid really are in big trouble this time, because while re-hiring Mourinho back in 2015 would have been a dreadful decision, it'd be even worse now.

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Decade of decline

How to manage Madrid

Messy divorce

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Losing the dressing room

Pouring petrol on a dumpster fire

Time to move on